It started with two lawyers sharing office space. That's how Emily Doskow met Janelle Orsi about a year and a half ago. In that first meeting, Doskow asked Orsi what she did. Sharing law, Orsi answered. .

If you're wondering what that is, as Doskow did at the time, it is about helping people navigate the world of sharing --sharing homes, offices, and whatever else anyone wants to share.

"When I heard about what her commitment was , I felt it was a timely topic," says Doskow, a lawyer and an author/editor with Nolo Press. "I have concerns about climate change, consumerism and isolation in the way we live." And sharing, she believed, could help ease some of those concerns.

Within a year from that day, the two co-authored and released a book called Sharing Solutions. As the title suggests, the authors want their readers to consider how sharing can improve the quality of their life. "It's to introduce people to the idea of sharing for grown-ups," says Doskow. "It's ideas (to share) for where ever people are. From trading meals with neighbors once a week, it goes on to more complicated kinds of sharing."  

The book suggests that if people have personal goals, they can use sharing to achieve those goals. She points to an example of sharing that she practices in her neighborhood, Maxwell Park, where she is part of a neighborhood work group. A few residents decided to pool their resources and skills and help each other with home projects such as painting the exterior of a house, repairing a roof, building a fence and installing a water drip system. The group, which has been going strong for more than a year now, has six families in it, and they all get together to work on a task once a month from April through October. "I'm feeling this sense of ownership in my neighborhood," says Doskow. "People sometimes start sharing for economic reasons and increase the amount they share for other reasons." 

If you're not sold, then consider Doskow and Orsi's argument: Each act of sharing has at least three kinds of benefits: social, environmental and economic, and the authors list as many as they can in the book. For example, at the end of the chapter on Sharing Food, they list at least five "benefits" in each of the above-mentioned three categories. Here’s a snippet:

Social and personal benefits: Save up to 30 minutes of cooking time per day through meal sharing. 

Environmental benefits: Reduce packaging waste though bulk buying. 

Financial benefits: Save between 20 percent and 50 percent on groceries by taking part in a cooperative or buying club.

The book promises to teach readers how to find people to share with; it provides basic agreements to get sharing off the ground, and if you really don't know where to start, it gives you ideas for how and what you can share. Still thinking? Consider buying the book with a friend.

For more on the Sharing Solution and a list of events, visit the Sharing Solution blog.